If you took the MCAT having taken a prep course or two but without having taken bio, chem, phys what kind of scores do you think you would get??
Ya...the prep course is just a refresher for what you already know (and a little bit of learning things you never paid attention to before). Without the classes themselves I think I would have done poorly.
My advice for you is to pay full attention in courses...imagine that your studying for the course doubles as studying for the MCAT
My advice for you is to pay full attention in courses...imagine that your studying for the course doubles as studying for the MCAT
I took it without a prep course and with Gen Chem I, Cell Bio, Physics I, and Genetics...also had taken half of Gen Chem II, but withdrew at the time, so I never completed the class. I got a pretty good 32, with nothing below 10.
A bit of a non-traditional applicant.. I took the mcat with essentially no pre-reqs. I've taken the first half of intro chem, no physics, no org., and only a few biology courses. I did take the princeton review prep course, and found the materials they gave really useful.. ended up with a 29
no bio, no chem only physics 18hrs scored 23 pretty happy with it. definately non trad 31 y/o taught public school for a few years.
Another non-trad here. I came from an engineering background, and knew I would need (1) to take the MCAT and (2) take all of the pre-reqs that engineering did not cover (which was limited to general chem I/II and physics I/II about ten years prior).
For timing reasons, I did not want to take the courses, take the MCAT, and then apply the next year - that is two years of waiting from the time I made the decision (about mid June) and I figured I could crunch that down to one.
So I read that big Kaplan review book in July, took the MCAT in August, and then started pre-req courses (bio I/II, biochem, organic chem, and added A&P, comparative A, genetics, micro etc. since I had the time). Managed to pull a low 30's so I was pretty satisfied.
For timing reasons, I did not want to take the courses, take the MCAT, and then apply the next year - that is two years of waiting from the time I made the decision (about mid June) and I figured I could crunch that down to one.
So I read that big Kaplan review book in July, took the MCAT in August, and then started pre-req courses (bio I/II, biochem, organic chem, and added A&P, comparative A, genetics, micro etc. since I had the time). Managed to pull a low 30's so I was pretty satisfied.
I think you need either classes, or plenty of time to prepare on your own. Both are not necessary, but of course the combination probably helps a lot of people. 